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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Germany: BDS activists inspecting Israeli products for boycott

You will have understood that in the European union the word is out: "Thou shalt not boycott Saudi Arabia and Qatar", but "though shalt boycott Israel". On the bright side, there are signs that the younger European generation is less cynical than the post-war generation and also less inclined to demonize Israel and the Jews.

A group of anti-Israel activists in the northern German city of Bremen
on Saturday visited stores to ensure they marked their products as
originating from Israeli settlements.

The Boycott, Sanctions,
Divestment (BDS) group stated in a press release: “With an ‘inspection
tour’ on November 28 we want to examine which businesses are selling
‘products from Israel’ and to call upon them to comply with the EU
labeling obligation.”

German journalist Jan-Philipp Hein reported
on the BDS group in stores on his twitter feed, posting photographs of
the activists wearing signs on their backs, reading, “Inspection:
Labeling obligation for products from the illegal Israeli settlements.”

A separate BDS protest on Saturday occurred in Berlin in front of the GALERIA Kaufhof department store on Alexander square. A photo can be seen of the activists holding a large BDS poster. GALERIA Kaufhof rejects product labels.

A
spokesperson said the chain’s policy is not to be influenced by
religion or politics when purchasing products. GALERIA Kaufhof sells
products made in the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

The EU
issued guidelines in November stating that Israeli settlement products
should not be labeled as made in Israel. EU member states and businesses
have the latitude to decide whether they wish to identify products from
the disputed territories.

The protests in Berlin and Bremen come
on the heels of the high-end Berlin department store KaDeWe’s removal
last week of eight Israeli wines produced in the Golan Heights.

Following
a great deal of criticism on social media and a protest from the Green
Party’s Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Parliamentary
Friendship Group in the Bundestag, a spokesman for the department store
sent him a letter of apology. “The eight Israeli wines will be
immediately returned,” the letter read.

“On this issue, dealt
with following recommendations of the European Commission, we acted too
fast and without sensitivity. We are sorry that the mistaken action of
the KaDeWe Group lead to misunderstandings, and we want to apologize for
that.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had slammed the
department store, telling the cabinet that the German government should
take action against the move. Pointing out that this department
store was originally owned by Jews and confiscated by the Nazis,
Netanyahu said that what began with the labeling of products has evolved
into a full-blown boycott of those products.

“We strongly
protest this step, which is morally, substantively and historically
unacceptable” Netanyahu said. “We expect the German government, which
came out against product labeling, to act on this grave matter.”